Executive Summary
| Reference Month |
January 2026 |
| CPI Index (General) |
104.46 |
| Headline YoY Inflation |
2.74% |
| Headline MoM Change |
0.35% |
| Food & Beverages YoY |
2.12% |
| Core CPI YoY |
3.41% |
1 — Division-Level Overview
The table below ranks all CPI divisions by their Year-over-Year inflation for the latest available month.
| Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services |
122.63 |
+5.23 |
+19.02 |
| CPI (Ex Veggies and Cereals) |
105.42 |
+0.63 |
+3.80 |
| Core CPI |
105.05 |
+0.67 |
+3.41 |
| Education services |
105.33 |
+0.08 |
+3.35 |
| CPI (Excluding Food and Beverages) |
104.66 |
+0.61 |
+3.14 |
| CPI Excluding Food and Beverages |
104.72 |
+0.58 |
+3.12 |
| CPI (Excluding Paan Tobacco and Intoxicants) |
104.47 |
+0.35 |
+3.07 |
| Clothing and footwear |
105.92 |
+0.15 |
+2.97 |
| Core (Ex Gold) |
104.44 |
+0.56 |
+2.87 |
| Paan, tobacco and intoxicants |
104.42 |
+0.30 |
+2.87 |
| Restaurants and accommodation services |
105.71 |
+0.18 |
+2.86 |
| CPI (General) |
104.46 |
+0.35 |
+2.74 |
| Recreation, sport and culture |
104.03 |
+0.31 |
+2.32 |
| Health |
103.91 |
+0.13 |
+2.18 |
| Food and beverages |
104.03 |
-0.04 |
+2.12 |
| Core (Ex Gold and Silver) |
103.38 |
+0.15 |
+1.89 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels |
102.02 |
+0.13 |
+1.53 |
| Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance |
102.97 |
+0.14 |
+1.45 |
| Information and communication |
103.30 |
+0.02 |
+0.16 |
| Transport |
100.64 |
+0.07 |
+0.09 |
YoY Inflation by Division
2 — Month-on-Month Heatmaps
Heatmaps show the monthly price momentum across the CPI hierarchy. Green cells indicate month-on-month deflation; red cells indicate acceleration.
3 — Inflation Dispersion Analysis
How evenly is inflation spread across the CPI basket? This section examines item-level data weighted by CPI basket shares.
Key Dispersion Metrics
| Items analysed |
227 |
| Weighted Mean Inflation |
2.59% |
| Weighted Median Inflation |
1.93% |
| Weighted Std Deviation |
14.56% |
| Basket in Deflation (<0%) |
14.4% |
| Basket in Low Inflation (0-2%) |
40.2% |
| Basket in Moderate (2-4%) |
30.7% |
| Basket in High (4-6%) |
6.2% |
| Basket in Extreme (>6%) |
8.4% |
Inflation Distribution — Item Count vs Basket Weight
Bubble Chart — Item-Level Dispersion
4 — Division Contributions Over Time
5 — Top Contributors
Top 20 Inflation Drivers
| Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services |
Silver jewellery |
159.68 |
0.3127 |
49.92 |
| Food and beverages |
Tomato |
64.79 |
0.4961 |
32.14 |
| Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services |
Gold /diamond /platinum jewellery |
46.77 |
0.6230 |
29.14 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels |
House Rent |
1.93 |
10.8850 |
21.03 |
| Food and beverages |
Chicken |
10.42 |
1.5752 |
16.42 |
| Food and beverages |
Milk: liquid |
2.88 |
5.2552 |
15.12 |
| Food and beverages |
Brinjal |
25.14 |
0.2912 |
7.32 |
| Food and beverages |
Fish and prawn |
6.74 |
1.0223 |
6.89 |
| Food and beverages |
Green chillies |
16.80 |
0.2379 |
4.00 |
| Clothing and footwear |
Tailor |
4.10 |
0.8674 |
3.56 |
| Food and beverages |
Lady's finger |
13.96 |
0.2488 |
3.47 |
| Food and beverages |
Goat meat/ mutton |
5.08 |
0.6825 |
3.47 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels |
LPG cylinder and piped natural gas |
1.72 |
1.9814 |
3.41 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels |
Residential building and land (minor repairs) |
3.47 |
0.7796 |
2.71 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels |
Firewood and chips |
3.03 |
0.8718 |
2.64 |
| Food and beverages |
Sugar |
4.61 |
0.4966 |
2.29 |
| Clothing and footwear |
Saree |
4.20 |
0.5281 |
2.22 |
| Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services |
Barber, beautician and spas |
3.08 |
0.7154 |
2.20 |
| Clothing and footwear |
Shirts, T-shirts, Kurta (gents) |
3.19 |
0.6766 |
2.16 |
| Paan, tobacco and intoxicants |
Country liquor |
4.91 |
0.3959 |
1.94 |
Top 20 Deflation Drivers
| Food and beverages |
Potato |
-28.99 |
0.7549 |
-21.88 |
| Food and beverages |
Onion |
-29.27 |
0.7006 |
-20.51 |
| Food and beverages |
Garlic |
-53.05 |
0.3738 |
-19.83 |
| Food and beverages |
Arhar, tur |
-24.90 |
0.5333 |
-13.28 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels |
Electricity charges |
-1.98 |
2.3277 |
-4.61 |
| Food and beverages |
Cumin (jeera) |
-10.77 |
0.3655 |
-3.94 |
| Transport |
Motor car and jeep |
-6.75 |
0.4665 |
-3.15 |
| Transport |
Motor cycle and scooter |
-3.35 |
0.6581 |
-2.20 |
| Food and beverages |
Peas |
-15.56 |
0.1254 |
-1.95 |
| Food and beverages |
Urd |
-8.32 |
0.1843 |
-1.53 |
| Food and beverages |
Gram: split |
-9.65 |
0.1151 |
-1.11 |
| Food and beverages |
Dry chillies |
-2.53 |
0.4050 |
-1.02 |
| Food and beverages |
Gram: whole |
-8.63 |
0.0885 |
-0.76 |
| Food and beverages |
Carrot |
-6.16 |
0.1218 |
-0.75 |
| Food and beverages |
Moong |
-2.89 |
0.2388 |
-0.69 |
| Food and beverages |
Besan and Gram products |
-4.20 |
0.1239 |
-0.52 |
| Food and beverages |
Lemon |
-3.53 |
0.1367 |
-0.48 |
| Food and beverages |
Peas, chickpeas |
-8.25 |
0.0516 |
-0.43 |
| Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance |
Air conditioner |
-6.03 |
0.0446 |
-0.27 |
| Food and beverages |
Other pulses |
-4.08 |
0.0473 |
-0.19 |
Inflation vs Deflation — Top Drivers
Methodology
- Data source: CPI data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), base year 2024.
- MoM Change: Month-on-month percentage change in the CPI index.
- YoY Change: Year-on-year percentage change (Jan 2026 vs Jan 2025).
- Contribution Score: YoY inflation (%) x item weight in the CPI basket — measures how much each item pushes headline inflation.
- Weighted Median / Mean: Inflation statistics weighted by CPI basket shares, giving higher influence to items that matter more in household expenditure.